Calligraphy is generally defined as the art of elegant writing wherein each letter, character, or symbol consists of a variable width line or lines. In the past, calligraphic writing has been produced manually using special writing tools, such as quills and chisel-pointed pens. These tools are special in that they must have the ability to produce a variable width line in a single stroke, the width of the line being independent upon the angular position of the tools relative to a workpiece to be lettered.
The manual production of calligraphic lettering requires a great amount of skill. Accordingly, it can take many years to become a skilled calligrapher. Also, even the skilled calligrapher must work relatively slowly in order to produce authentic calligraphic lettering. Thus, manual calligraphic lettering can be a time-consuming process even for the skilled calligraphers.